![]() ![]() Their associated waves together applies a much larger pressure in the outside-in direction, resulting in the two metal plates being pushed closer until they come in contact. This causes a small pressure on the metal plates due to the associated wave of each particle to act from inside out.Ĭomparatively, a much larger number of particles with negative energy are able to manifest in the external space around the metal plates. Now, as there is only a small space present in between the metal plates, a limited number of particles having negative energy are able to manifest there. These waves together apply pressure on the flat metal plates from all the sides. Each of these particles has a wave associated with it, which can be imagined to be like the waves in a sea. These particles pop in and out of existence, appearing and disappearing randomly. The following is a theoretical explanation of this.Īccording to the uncertainty principle, an area of nothingness (a vacuum), can be full of an infinite number of microscopic particles known as virtual particles. Thus, negative energy is allowed to manifest freely and within the vacuum chamber, the hypothetical Dirac sea of negative energy is created. All effects of external positive energy and force have been removed or nullified. The vacuum created in the above experiment is pure vacuum. According to Dirac, negative energy exists all around us, but its presence cannot be determined since it is balanced out by the positive energy present everywhere. The above observation is the result of the Casimir effect. The following shows how the Casimir effect could be observed experimentally. Thus, negative energy remained only a theory until in 1948, Hendrik Casimir proposed an experiment which could display the effects produced by negative energy.Ĭasimir argued that if the effects of gravity and electromagnetism were nullified, a nearly pure vacuum would be created within which, the effects of negative energy would manifest in an observable manner in the form of something known as the Casimir effect. Though his equation predicted the existence of negative energy, Dirac was unable to experimentally verify this prediction. The Discovery of Negative Energy: Casimir Effect Many physicists even began questioning the likelihood of its existence, until Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir, through an innovative experiment, was able to show that it was in fact real and very much present. This cast a large shadow of doubt on the very concept of negative energy. However, he did propose that if an ideal vacuum could be created wherein all effects of positive energy were eliminated, then the presence of the Dirac sea and therefore of negative energy could be verified.īut the creation of an ideal vacuum seemed impossible at the time, and so the existence of negative energy could not be proven. ![]() As such, the net effect remains zero, and so we are unable to see or feel the effects of negative energy in normal everyday conditions. And if negative energy did exist, why don’t we see or feel its presence? To explain his findings, Dirac stated that in nature, the quantum states of positive energy are exactly balanced out by the quantum states of negative energy. This was the first time physics had indicated towards the existence of negative energy. It goes a long way in showing that even Einstein could be wrong, and that God does in fact play dice all the time! We must realize that just like all the other, seemingly impossible concepts and theories in quantum mechanics, it’s as real as life itself. Among the several befuddling concepts that have over the years arisen from the uncertainty principle, negative energy is one of them. The science of quantum mechanics has this inherent quality of confounding the common sense of even the most brightest ones among us, and the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is at the very center of all this confusion. After all, he said, how could the world around us be so random that even with physics, it would be impossible to make any prediction about it with certainty? It baffled him to no extent! “God does not play dice!” – these were the words famously uttered by the great Albert Einstein in order to express his displeasure at the bizarre implications of the uncertainty principle. Hence the universe as a whole has zero total energy in it. Considering the universe to be approximately uniform, one can show that the total negative gravitational energy in it would exactly cancel out the total positive energy represented by matter. The gravitational potential energy which keeps two pieces of matter in contact with one another must be negative since it takes positive energy to pull them apart.
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